Contaminants and impurities, such as dirt, fertilizers, fungicides, feces, molds, insects, bacteria and microbial pathogens can be the cause of disagreeable taste in raw fruits and vegetables and often cause indigestion, diarrhea, gastroenteritis, chronic and acute illness and sometimes fatalities. Microbial pathogens may also occur in either municipal and well water (e.g. parasites, viruses and bacteria) from sewage treatment plants, septic systems or agricultural livestock operations. Also, inorganic impurities, such as salts and metals, naturally occurring or derived from urban storm water runoff, industrial wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining and farming are distasteful as well.
The present practice is to remove contaminants by soaking, rinsing and/or scrubbing raw fruits and vegetables with municipal or well water. This practice is unsatisfactory for complete cleaning and does not remove all of the impurities in municipal and well water. Additional contaminants may exist beneath the wax coatings of fruits and vegetables, such as, apples, cucumbers, carrots and onions. Moreover, leafy vegetables (e.g. berries, grapes, plums and apricots) are easily damaged during scrubbing.